"Broadening Black participation in Revolutionary Cuba" was
first published on Black World Today and AfroCubaWeb as Reflections On Race
And The Status Of People Of African Descent In Revolutionary Cuba, in 2001.

November, 2000

Dr. Fidel Castro’s speech at the Riverside Church on September 8, 2000
provided the leader of the Cuban revolution the opportunity to again publicly
take an official stand on the question of race in revolutionary Cuba. He spoke
about the current social conditions of the people of African descent living in
that Caribbean nation.

I have been observing official Cuban policies and positions with regards to
blacks in that country for over 30 years. I say Dr. Castro again took a stand
because this was not the first time: he also did so on several other occasions,
including the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in1985, where I
personally participated as an official guest. There he openly admitted that
racial discrimination still existed in his country and that measures needed to
be taken against it. Unfortunately, his speech was not published in the final
report. This is contrary to the practice of other Congresses before and after
this one, where the reports were published in booklet form. I don’t know what
conclusion ought to be drawn out of this experience of sheer omission. This type
of carelessness could strengthen some critics who say that the leader of the
revolution is occasionally being censored by certain retrograde elements who are
serving him as advisors.

Marginality

In September, 2000, the President of Cuba again raised the topic of racial
discrimination and marginalization, admitting that the Revolutionary process is
not a perfect model that has solved all problems of inequality and injustice. In
itself this was a victory by Fidel Castro over all those tendencies surrounding
him who seem to wish to silence the dialogue on this issue. His words were as
follows:

"….I am not claiming that our country is a perfect model of
equality and justice. We believed at the beginning that when we established
the fullest equality before the law and complete intolerance for any
demonstration of sexual discrimination in the case of women, or racial
discrimination in the case of ethnic minorities, these phenomena
would vanish from our society. It was some time before we discovered that
marginality and racial discrimination with it are not something that one
gets rid of with a law or even with ten laws, and we have not managed to
eliminate them completely in 40 years….."

When the Cuban President speaks of ethnic minorities, he refers to the
peoples of African descent and other nationalities, perhaps the remnants of the
Indigenous Tainos, the Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Arabs, etc. On the other hand,
there must be a so-called ethnic majority, which could be the Iberian
Spanish immigrants in Cuba.

There is much to be said concerning this categorization in terms of numbers:
majority and minority. The very first question that should be raised is by what
criteria can one determine that the Iberian Spanish element, in racial terms
otherwise classified as "whites," are in the majority in Cuba? Vague
concepts like this create tensions before any discussion gets underway and
obstruct a positive evolution of the assessment and definition of official
policies with regards to existing ethnicities in Cuba. Emphatically, I want to
say that the official circles responsible for defining the guidelines in social
and political practice in Cuba need to take this matter very seriously and
reflect on this matter of the percentages. This is especially true of
classifications commonly employed such as "whites,"
"mulattos," and "blacks."

Some official documents consider a "mulatto" as being
"white". Other documents define Chinese as "white" and yet
on other occasions as "black." One can find still other sources, such
as the Ministry of External Affairs, that include black and mulattos on the same
side of the list resulting in a 63% figure for the segment of African descent,
an estimate one also finds in American sources, both governmental and scholarly.

Percentages that are sometimes officially applied, such as whites 70%, blacks
19 %, mulattos 11%, are clearly inadequate. These likely come from the 1980-1981
census, where people were asked to identify themselves along ethnic lines, and
are disregarded by most Cuba scholars. Such percentages necessarily lead to
partial policies followed by inequality in proportional social relations as a
result. Consequently, leading figures directing major policy-making bodies need
to accommodate themselves on these patterns of visions and in order to be
inspired to have a critical and self-critical attitude when addressing themes
regarding the position, participation, and mobility of the people of African
descent in the Cuban society.

Dr. Fidel Castro continues saying:

"…There has never been nor will there ever be a case where the law
is applied according to ethnic criteria. However, we did discover that the
descendents of those slaves who had lived in the slave quarters were the
poorest and continued to live, after the supposed abolition of slavery, in
the poorest housing.

There are marginal neighborhoods; there are hundreds of thousand of
people who live in marginal neighborhoods, and not only blacks and mixed
race people, but whites as well. There are marginal whites, too, and all
this we inherited from the previous social system….."

Certainly, blacks and whites co-exist in marginal neighborhoods with
difficult material conditions such as deficient housing, limited urban
infrastructure, and episodic transportation. The President has made a bold
statement and has exposed the matter with openness and frankness. It is clear
that people of African descent still face marginality in housing conditions in
the traditional urban quarters of the capital of Havana -- in areas such as
Jesus María, Belén, Colón, Canal, Los Sitios, Pueblo Nuevo, Cayo Hueso, San
Leopoldo, Pogolotti, Romerio, to mention a few -- or in others across Cuba such
la Marina in Matanzas, La Loma del Chivo in Guantanamo, or Los Hoyos and La Maya
in Santiago de Cuba.

Cultural Marginality

But housing is just one part of the story. At present the most burning question
remains cultural marginality as a consequence of the supremacy of the
Iberian-Hispanic values and norms in education, culture, economics and politics.

In the Pedagogia 99 Congress that took place in Havana in February 99, Dr.
Castro stated:

"We thought that to decree absolute equality and civil rights would
have been sufficient to wipe out these traces. However, today we still
observe that poorest sectors are still those descendants of slaves.

Before the triumph of the Revolution, there existed on the island a
culture of poverty and wealth, where the middle class was fundamentally
white and were better prepared and had better material conditions. People
with a better educational level influenced their children because they
taught them, they looked over their homework, and they demanded of them. In
the same way, poverty was transmitted.

For all that everyone was made equal under the law, for all that assistance
was rendered, the best grades came from those families headed by
professionals. This does not mean there were no advances in these years, but
that despite the equality in opportunities for all, it is difficult to carry
out a revolution because it implies a change of the society."

Dr. Castro is indicating that there are less favorable results among the
students who are of African descent as compared to those of Iberian – Hispanic
origin. In several discussions with professionals on this topic wondering why
these results are obtained by the students of African descent, I was told that
"será porque los negros son más brutos," meaning, maybe because the
blacks are more stupid. Sincerely, I do believe that expressions of this type
are a consequence of a lack of awareness by those who have expressed them. A
wider look in the Caribbean area shows us that extensive studies sponsored by
the UNESCO have been carried out to address the "eurocentric"
character that typifies the content, aims and objective of the educational
system in various countries. The same situation has been looked at in
anglophone, francophone, and germanophone countries, where language differences
and a focus on European cultural values and norms have caused serious lags in
the education of youths of African descent with consequent high dropout rates.

To tackle this problem we must admit to ourselves the eurocentrism that
exists in education in Cuba and define policies directed to acknowledge the
multicultural manifestations of the entire society. Efforts ought to be made to
meet the student of African descent from within his and her own life experience.
This method is applicable for education programs in both intra and extra mural
projects, as well as for adult education.

Socio-economic marginalization has to do with the fact that people of African
descent do not participate fully in all types of job opportunities, especially
in the recent reorganization of the economic system whereby new job
opportunities have been created in the privileged ‘dollar market’. When
speaking of the dollar market, I am referring to the hotel sector and the
commercial sector that depend on foreign currencies for their operations, and
any other work site that legally handles foreign currencies. These will deliver
some economic interest to the worker who is active in that sector and who thus
will be able either directly or indirectly to have access to revenues in foreign
currencies. This situation is creating social tensions and sentiments of disgust
among broad sections of Cubans, naturally, but especially among those of African
descent as they feel excluded. It is also the visual part of the problem with
which foreigners and friends from abroad are confronted when they come and visit
this Caribbean island and notice that the representation of blacks in hotels and
business corporations is extraordinarily low. This is the case even in provinces
like Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, where the African portion of the society
is the highest in comparison to all provinces of the island. Let me illustrate
this with one example out of many.

In the summer of 2000, I had the pleasure of leading a Carnival Group from
the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to Santiago de Cuba’s Carnival. The major
criticism of the Caribbean and North American visitors, who were then lodged at
Hotel Santiago, was that the only Sub-Saharan African Cuban worker that they had
seen that day in the lobby of the hotel was a young woman sweeping the floor in
her uniform. The group asked question on top of question and I as the ‘host’
had the difficult task of answering them!

Another concern to many is the fact that it is plain to see that people of
Iberian – Hispanic descent has more access to the now free dollar market,
which gives these citizens a remarkably privileged position. This is partly
explained by taking into account that they receive financial support from
relatives abroad.

As far as financial support on an organizational level, it is worthwhile
mentioning that those organizations and institutions that clearly represent
cultural manifestations related to the Iberian – Hispanic segment of the Cuban
society, for example, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, can easily count on donations
from Spain. On the other hand, organizations of people of African descent, such
as the Ballet Folklorico Nacional, are facing dire financial circumstances due
to lack of resources.

As we continue our discussion of cultural marginality it is necessary to
point out that the constant struggle between Europe and the Africa that we find
in all societies that have known the plantation economy is also manifest in
Cuban society. The methods imposed to find a solution to this conflict has been
the assimilation of the African component to the values and norms of the
European component. This has meant that African cultural manifestations either
had to make way for new concepts or be considered folkloric. This has been the
case with African religions, the Rumba manifestation, and the Son rhythm –
complex in popular dance music.

Religious expressions of Yoruba, Bantu, Calabar and Arará origin have
survived all adversity and are now openly performed. The eurocentrism of
official cultural policies caused African religious manifestations to be
regarded as "exotic" therefore folkloric, and so we witness these
manifestations being used for tourist consumption in bars and nightclubs.
Naturally, this is an offense to the religious sentiments of the people of
African descent, who do not express their opinion, but nevertheless observe and
reflect. This is a typical African way of responding to such social
manifestations.

As the Rumba complex, comprised of the genres Yambu, Columbia and the
Guaguanco, is lived out in popular quarters by dancers and musicians
predominantly of African descent, this complex has suffered a lot of threats
towards its disappearance. It was not to the taste of the elite before the
revolution and neither to certain sectors after the triumph of the revolution.
At the same time, Theatre Rumba, which was already well developed before the
revolution, continues to exist as entertainment in nightclubs, theaters, and
tourist resorts. Whatever criteria there could exist to justify the
disappearance of popular rumba, still people of African descent have experienced
another "no" to one of their authentic cultural manifestations.

The problem of cultural marginality is complex. For example, how can one
explain why the ‘SON’ rhythm - complex was neglected or almost destroyed by
measures taken early on by the revolution? The Cuban ‘SON’ is one of the
highest expressions of African rhythms fused with hispanic melodies. What
explanation could be given as to why the African sound and timbres had to
disappear in the newly created musical styles, such as nueva trova, to benefit
Iberan - Hispanic tastes? How is it that certain music producers on
radio-stations, all of them of Iberian Spanish descent, could have gone so far
in downgrading the musical styles of Arsenio Rodriguez, Chappottin, and
Estrellas de Chocolate as being "musica de negros" ("suena muy
negro") and therefore to be eliminated from the air? The SON – rhythm
complex began in the 19th century and is comprised of the genres:
changui, nengon, guiriba, guajira, guaracha, danzon, danzonette, mambo, son
montuno, charanga, and the cha cha cha. Its roots are in the War of Independence
against Spain, one of the greatest slave revolts of this hemisphere.

Buena Vista Social Club and the international success of SON is a triumph of
African flavor with the sound and timbre of the most authentic representation of
Cuba’s cultural identity. It is also an important warning to all those forces
inside Cuba who have once intended to falsify history by destroying the African
component of the national cultural heritage of Cuba.

The State of Self - Awareness of Blacks in Cuba

How do blacks in Cuba react to eurocentric manifestations which provoke
cultural lags?

Cuba’s history is rich in the experiences of slave and maroon revolts in
the Colonial period, of which Aponte’s uprising in 1810 was one of the more
significant.

In the twentieth century the rebellion of 1912 whereby the leaders of the
Partido Independiente de Color along with 6,000 other blacks were slaughtered
should never be forgotten. It had a determining effect on black self esteem and
on black white relations.

Upon all these pages of struggle written by blacks in Cuba, the question
arises whether Cubans of African descent are conscious of their African origin
and how do they see their society. This has been a question that many visiting
friends have been posing over and over again to black Cubans. They received
astonishing responses, sometimes much to their annoyance.

Many individuals still agree with Jose Marti’s statement saying ‘more
than black and more than white, we are Cubans’. This statement of Marti
intelligently bypasses the nationality question and leaves the Africans in Cuban
society without an answer to 500 years of severe psycho-social problems caused
by European colonialism. Today, a black Cuban can still tell you he or she is
not black nor African. A black Cuban can easily tell you "nuestros
antepasados, los espanoles," meaning, our ancestors the Spaniards. A Cuban
man or woman of African descent on many occasions can think that it is logical
and better to marry a white person in order to "adelantar la raza"
meaning advancing the race. So many a times, a black person can address the
other as "negro," which anywhere else in the Caribbean, the United
States, and Europe will immediately cause severe conflicts. Naturally, the
praise of European somatic features above African ones is still common among
blacks in Cuba. Women straighten or process their hair and blacks many times
call each other and think of themselves as "feo," ugly. Cuba’s
borders have been closed to the influences of the Black Power movement and the
entire Black Awareness Movement which was so active in the sixties. That’s why
it should not be a surprise to many observers to know that while the problem of
self-hatred and internalization of European values and norms by people of
African descent has found a solution in other countries of the region, in
revolutionary Cuba this problem has yet to be solved on a significant scale.

We need to be optimistic for there is a growing movement in Cuba of people of
African descent in cultural matters around Africa and the African Diaspora. The
African survivals in Cuba are among the strongest in the hemisphere and have
been taken up by the younger generation, though not always with the rigor that
their elders wish for. A significant number of youth are admirers of Bob Marley,
the Rastafari, and the Reggae movement. Over the past two to three years, Hip
Hop and Rap music exchanges have been promoted between the USA and Cuba. The
Minister of Culture, Abel Prieto, even declared that Rap was part of the
national patrimony, making evident what was already a major movement among Cuban
youths.

Plastic Artists are successful in promoting Black consciousness but face
resistance from certain sectors who even try to dismiss them by nicknaming them
‘black fundamentalists’. Their experience is of great interest as their
exhibits, such as the Queloides exhibit in la Habana in 1999, turn into group
dialogs on race. One of their observations has to do with the difficulties in
getting whites to discuss these issues and overcome their state of denial. So
long as the discussion centered on white racism, no headway was made, but when a
discussion of racism and self hatred on the black side was engaged, then the
situation became more fluid.

Ongoing dialog between Fidel Castro, Caribbeans, and Americans

President Fidel Castro Ruz has on numerous occasions successfully
circumvented his own advisers and dealt directly with the problems of race and
the status of Cubans of African descent when addressing foreigners, including
Americans. Still more attention needs to be given to this matter and more talks
undertaken concerning the racial situation based on a cultural perspective right
across present day Cuban society.

We need to take into account important historical factors such as the fact
that Cuba was the penultimate country on the American continent to abolish the
system of enslavement of Africans in 1886. After Cuba became independent in
1898, the neocolonial era, introduced and supported by segregationist United
States ruling cliques, knew several moments of racial tensions and upheavals
like the 1912 massacre which cost the lives of over 6000 Cubans from African
descent. Around the same time as this 1912 massacre, the neocolonial Cuban
governments, backed by transnational corporations such as the United Fruit
Company and others, decided to import thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean
islands as a further step against Cubans of African descent. These workers came
in from Haiti, Jamaica, Tortola, Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, Saint John, Jos Van
Dyke, Anguilla, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Dominica, Guadeloupe,
Martinique, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Martin, Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba. This
process was initiated around 1910 and lasted up to the early fifties. Those
immigrant workers were subjected living in subhuman conditions worse than in the
days of slavery.

While listening to Dr. Castro’s September speech, it became clear to me
that many friends and visitors from the United States have been talking with the
leader of the Cuban revolution on the situation of blacks, people of color or
simply Cubans of African descent. We know that prestigious organizations of
African Americans such as TransAfrica and the Grass Roots Malcolm X Movement,
along with representatives of the Black Caucus in Congress, have met with the
leader on several occasions and the topic of race has appeared on the agenda.

As already indicated earlier in this article, I personally have had the
pleasure of leading a significant number of visitors from the Caribbean and the
United States to Cuba, who were amazed at what they observed in terms of race –
relations. And we have spent many hours discussing the race situation in
revolutionary Cuba on many occasions, in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo,
Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Sancti Spiritus, and Matanzas. The topic is of
great interest to a wide range of friends of Cuba. Up to now there has been
little official approach or answer to the question of race or of the social
status of Cubans of African descent from a cultural perspective. The official
position thus far has mostly been a denial of racism in Cuba and the insistence
that there are no blacks or Africans in Cuba, but that "we are all
Cubans." This position in itself has created more harm and has contributed
to raising the suspicions of analysts, scholars, and friends of the Cuban
revolution from other countries with a great deal of experience in this matter,
such as Jamaica, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Antigua and the United States itself among
others.

The policies of generalization aiming at unifying the society against outside
political aggression, mainly the United States, has had severe consequences for
non-Iberian Hispanic sectors. This was possible since from a cultural
perspective, those policies were of a Eurocentric, Iberian – Hispanic nature.
In order to illustrate this statement, I will narrate two examples. The first
one is of an association of descendents and residents from the Canary Islands
which is active in the province of Villa Clara. It so happened that in the
summer of 1998, I was covering a yearly Caribbean Trade Fair in the eastern
Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba. In a conversation with the leaders of a
delegation representing the cultural heritage of the Canary Islands, these
personalities were asking me to participate in my "Section on the Cultural
Identity of the Caribbean", which is aired every Sunday on Radio Progreso.
The reason why they placed that application to me was that according to them, in
the first place they are being considered as Spaniards in a crude way, and
moreover their specific case as Canarians was neglected or subordinated in order
to fit into a general cultural plan in the nation. Indeed the Canary Islands has
a different historical experience than Spain, who colonized this archipelago
located off the northwestern coast of Africa.

The second example occurred on a work-visit to Caimanera in
Guantanamo, when a high-level cultural officer explained to me the harm that the
imposed generalized unifying policies caused to residents of Portugal, among
others, who reside in this once very active neighborhood. Many were ruthlessly
considered as Cuban and had to suppress or neglect their origin, in this case
Portugal.

The official position which over-emphasized the
"Cuban" citizenship of the citizens has estranged the immigrants of
"white" color as well as "black" color as in the case of
Haitian, Jamaican and other Caribbean and African nations.

Dr. Fidel Castro in his September speech at Riverside Church was engaged in
an open dialogue with those friends of Cuba who had these concerns. This was a
cordial gesture to those who have repeatedly express their sincere concern on
race matters in revolutionary Cuba. The well being of the masses inside the
Cuban revolution is and should be a matter of concern to forces both inside and
outside of Cuba. All doors and windows should be opened up for honest, frank,
and sincere dialogue among those who want to promote peace, equality and social
progress.

Yet I still would want to emphasize that this positive process of dialogue
should be continued, only more rigorously. Meaning to say that visitors,
observers, and friends from abroad, on the one hand, as well as the leadership
of the Cuban revolution on the other hand, ought to address this question with
ever more depth of vision. None of us should be too soft with our own history.
There is no need for shyness, since we are not responsible for having created
these problems ever since the colonialists sowed their seeds on our lands and
pastures.

With this knowledge of the historical processes that preceded and determined
the revolutionary processes that started on January 1st of 1959, it
is good to insist on an urgent attention to these matters especially by the
leader of the Revolution. This cannot be the prerogative of any other sector
inside the Cuban society without a guidance similar to that which he has given
on the changes in the economic realm to counteract the crisis that resulted from
the US blockade and the disappearance of the entire European socialist camp. The
changes in the socio-economic profile of Cuba since 1990 have caused the
emergence of a new social group that has occupied strategic positions in
economic and political life. These descendants of Iberian – Hispanics are
over-represented in the socio-economic-cultural and political profile of present
day to day life in Cuba.

A diligent attention to solve this problem is required before the result of
the above changes linger on too much and certain negative speculations with
regards to the future of Cuba become more evident. The future of Cuba has to be
determined and tailored now, with the presence of Dr. Fidel Castro, the sole
uniting figure who has the confidence of the masses, in particular of the people
of African descent in Cuba.

This process of change is needed urgently to safeguard the revolution in the
long run. The economic blockade could be lifted and money could start to pour
into the island again by the millions. There is no doubt about that, but the
concern among the ‘wretched of the earth’ is: will the conditions of
quasi-slavery ever be re-established in Cuba as they existed prior to 1959?

Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz asks us to be hopeful when he concludes his speech by
saying:

"…I told you that our country is on its way to a new era. I hope
someday to be able to speak to you of the things we are doing today and how
we are going to continue to do them.

We do not have the money to build housing for all the people who live in
what we could call marginal conditions. But we have lots of other ideas
which will not wait until the end of times and which our united and justice
loving people will implement to get rid of even the tiniest vestiges of
marginality and discrimination. I have faith that we will succeed because
that is the endeavor today of the leaders of our youth, our students and our
people.

I shall not say more, I am simply saying that we are aware that there is
still marginality in our country. But, there is the will to eradicate it
with the proper methods for this task to bring more unity and equality to
our society.

On behalf of my Homeland, I promise to keep you informed about the
progress of our efforts."

The dialogue on this matter must continue both inside and outside of Cuba.
Other countries of the Caribbean area have also known the plantation economy
system dating back to the 17th, 18th and the 19th
centuries. Consequently, those societies count with the presence of peoples of
African descent in significantly high numbers such as in Curaçao in the
Netherlands Antilles. Talks on matters related to the history and social
position of the people of African descent have encountered severe resistance
from certain sectors in those societies which are intimately loyal to colonial
and retrograde ideologies on both a cultural and political-economic level.

In this light, we should refer to the visit of Fidel Castro to Barbados in
August of 1998, when he was invited by Dr. Owen Arthur, the Prime Minister. This
coincided with the celebrations commemorating the abolition of slavery in the
British territories. On that occasion, Barbadian officials, along with the
Seraphine Cultural Center, called for extending the Pan-African movement and
called on Fidel Castro to include Cuba into this movement. The call is just
right as it takes into account that Cuba is the home of a significant number of
Africans in the diaspora.

Conclusion

We need to be hopeful and wait for the ‘other ideas’ that the leadership
of the Revolution would want to expose in the near future, with regards to the
improvement of material and non-material living conditions of the people in Cuba
who descend from Bantu, Yoruba, Benin, Calabar, Igbo, Mandinka, Wollof lands,
Abyssinia and other lands in Mother Africa.

The history of these sons and daughters of the rich continent of Africa is
the anti-history of the eurocentric portions of the Cuban, therefore Caribbean
society. History has blessed us with the shining example of Antonio Maceo y
Grajales, who in 1878, in his ‘Protest of Baragua’ had made clear to
General Arsenio Martinez Campos, representing Spanish rule and eurocentric
sectors of Cuban society, that there will be no independence without the
total abolition of the system of enslavement of Africans…

The history of liberation in our continent has shown us that some elements
among us were and still are prepared to break a little bit with colonial Spain,
France, Britain, The Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, in
particular, and colonial Europe in general, but not entirely, especially not
culturally! And that is precisely where our nations, even though independent or
semi-independent, have to continue persisting in reflecting on and talking about
our situation along with Cuba and find a way together in order to deal with the
globalized world.